IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v10y2001i5p441-456.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of variable health insurance deductibles on the demand for physician visits

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Schellhorn

Abstract

In order to contain cost in the health care sector, the introduction of consumer incentives in health insurance has been suggested and realized in many countries. The Swiss health system reform of 1996 introduced a choice of deductible for health services in the mandatory basic health insurance. This paper estimates the effect of this choice on physician service utilization. A generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator is applied to take account of the endogeneity of the choice of the deductible in the estimation of the number of physician visits. This paper finds that most of the observed reduction in the number of physician visits among individuals who choose a higher deductible seems to be a result of self‐selection of individuals into the respective insurance contracts, and not to induced changes in utilization behaviour. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Schellhorn, 2001. "The effect of variable health insurance deductibles on the demand for physician visits," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(5), pages 441-456, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:10:y:2001:i:5:p:441-456
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.630
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.630
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.630?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Terza, Joseph V., 1998. "Estimating count data models with endogenous switching: Sample selection and endogenous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 129-154, May.
    2. Holly, Alberto & Gardiol, Lucien & Domenighetti, Gianfranco & Brigitte Bisig, 1998. "An econometric model of health care utilization and health insurance in Switzerland," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-5), pages 513-522, May.
    3. Windmeijer, F A G & Silva, J M C Santos, 1997. "Endogeneity in Count Data Models: An Application to Demand for Health Care," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(3), pages 281-294, May-June.
    4. van Doorslaer, Eddy & Wagstaff, Adam & van der Burg, Hattem & Christiansen, Terkel & De Graeve, Diana & Duchesne, Inge & Gerdtham, Ulf-G & Gerfin, Michael & Geurts, Jose & Gross, Lorna, 2000. "Equity in the delivery of health care in Europe and the US," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 553-583, September.
    5. van Ophem, Hans, 2000. "Modeling Selectivity in Count-Data Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 18(4), pages 503-511, October.
    6. A. C. Cameron & P. K. Trivedi & Frank Milne & J. Piggott, 1988. "A Microeconometric Model of the Demand for Health Care and Health Insurance in Australia," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 55(1), pages 85-106.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Schellhorn, 2001. "A Comparison of Alternative Methods to Model Endogeneity in Count Models. An Application to the Demand for Health Care and Health Insurance Choice," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 40, McMaster University.
    2. Marisol Rodríguez & Alexandrina Stoyanova, 2004. "The effect of private insurance access on the choice of GP/specialist and public/private provider in Spain," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 689-703, July.
    3. Partha Deb & Chenghui Li & Pravin K. Trivedi & David M. Zimmer, 2006. "The effect of managed care on use of health care services: results from two contemporaneous household surveys," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(7), pages 743-760, July.
    4. Chai Cheng, T & Vahid, F, 2010. "Demand for hospital care and private health insurance in a mixed publicprivate system: empirical evidence using a simultaneous equation modeling approach," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 10/25, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    5. Barros, Pedro Pita & Machado, Matilde P. & Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna, 2008. "Moral hazard and the demand for health services: A matching estimator approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 1006-1025, July.
    6. Andrés Ramírez Hassan & Johnatan Cardona Jimenez & Ramiro Cadavid Montoya, 2011. "The impact of subsidized health insurance on the poor in Colombia: Evaluating the case of Medellin," Documentos de Trabajo CIEF 10602, Universidad EAFIT.
    7. Andr? Romeu-Santana & ?gel M. Vera-Hern?dez, "undated". "A Semi-Nonparametric Estimator For Counts With An Endogenous Dummy. Variable," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 452.00, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    8. Astrid Kiil, 2012. "Does employment-based private health insurance increase the use of covered health care services? A matching estimator approach," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-38, March.
    9. Chung, Rebecca H. & Lee, Jonq-Ying & Brown, Mark G., 2004. "A Study of the Demand for Medical Services in Taiwan," Research papers 53389, Florida Department of Citrus.
    10. Koen Jochmans & Vincenzo Verardi, 2022. "Instrumental‐variable estimation of exponential‐regression models with two‐way fixed effects with an application to gravity equations," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(6), pages 1121-1137, September.
    11. Michael Creel, 2002. "Hausman Tests for Inefficient Estimators: Application to Demand for Health Care Service (revised)," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 509.02, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    12. Terence Chai Cheng, 2011. "Measuring the Effects of Removing Subsidies for Private Insurance on Public Expenditure for Health Care," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2011n26, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    13. Ángel Marcos Vera‐Hernández, 1999. "Duplicate coverage and demand for health care. The case of Catalonia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(7), pages 579-598, November.
    14. Partha Deb & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2012. "Empirical Models of Health Care Use," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Partha Deb & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2002. "Specification and Simulated Likelihood Estimation of a Non-normal Outcome Model with Selection: Application to Health Care Utilization," Economics Working Paper Archive at Hunter College 02/5, Hunter College Department of Economics, revised 2004.
    16. Daniele Fabbri & Chiara Monfardini, 2016. "Opt Out or Top Up? Voluntary Health Care Insurance and the Public vs. Private Substitution," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 78(1), pages 75-93, February.
    17. Ulf‐ G. Gerdtham, 1997. "Equity in Health Care Utilization: Further Tests Based on Hurdle Models and Swedish Micro Data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(3), pages 303-319, May.
    18. Aida Isabel Tavares & Inês Marques, 2021. "Multi-layer health insurance coverage, medical services use and health in a Universal National Health System, the case of Portugal," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(1), pages 141-153, February.
    19. Stiebale, Joel, 2016. "Cross-border M&As and innovative activity of acquiring and target firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1-15.
    20. Massimiliano Bratti & Alfonso Miranda, 2010. "Endogenous Treatment Effects for Count Data Models with Sample Selection or Endogenous Participation," DoQSS Working Papers 10-05, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, revised 10 Dec 2010.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:10:y:2001:i:5:p:441-456. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.